SCUTTLING OF SHIPS

Southland Times, Issue 24754, 27 May 1942, Page 5

SCUTTLING OF SHIPS

ARMY IN BURMA (Rec. 9.30 p.m.) LONDON, May 25. An agency correspondent on the Burma front states that 700 river craft on the Irrawady and Chindwin rivers have been scuttled to prevent their being used by the Japanese. Passenger steamers, launches and “flats” had done a fine job in carrying the Allies’ wounded, ferrying troops and stores, transporting refugees and acting as assault landing craft for the Burma army’s commandos attacking enemy dumps. A water transport commander said there was no chance of the Japanese replacing the craft sunk. They had only had about 30 barges and a number of small “flats” taken from native owners who had not obeyed the order to remove them. The commander described how law and order had disappeared and refugees had been butchered by Thakin rebels. He said the Japanese did not make a determined attack on the shipping, presumably because they wanted to capture the vestseis. The Japanese are making great efforts to raise hundreds of ships formerly belonging to the Allies and themselves which were sunk in Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore, the Netherlands Indies and the Philippines, says The Daily Mirror. The Japanese are facing up to their shipping losses and planning for a long war. The shipbuilding capacity of Japan and her occupied bases has increased enormously, but it will never reach the sinkings which the Japanese will have to face when the Allied air forces can hit back effectively.

The Japanese reckon it will take the Allies at least two years to concentrate sufficient shipping in the Pacific to hit back properly, whatever is the outcome of the European war. They hope in that period to raise, repair and build enough ships to maintain communications and offensive strength. They are not reckoning on the enormous capacity of the Allies’ dockyards.

JAPAN’S AIRCRAFT STRENGTH

LONDON, May ?5. “Japan is beginning to feel the pinch of an aircraft shortage, particularly in bombers,” says The Daily Mail’s Australian correspondent, Noel Monks. He adds that this information comes from a reliable source. Japanese plane production is estimated at below 600 planes a month and losses on all fronts in five months are believed to have been about 2000 nlanes.

The Japanese have never launched a real air blitzkrieg against the Allied Pacific bases. All the attacks have been on a small scale compared with the assaults on Malaya, Singapore and Java. The enemy, instead of trying, to knock out Port Moresby, has nibbled at this base and the Allies as a result have been able to build up their strength. This surely indicates that the Japanese have been nursing their strength in this zone, knowing that because of the heavy calls in China and Burma their reserves in the SouthWest Pacific would have to be limited. The enemy undoubtedly has more air power in the South-West Pacific than he has yet used. But one thing is certain. He can never move against Australia without complete air superiority. If the Japanese did not know that before they know it now after the, Coral Sea battle.

RECAPTURE OF BURMA URGED

NEW DELHI, May 25. Lieutenant-General Joseph W. Stillwell, the American general who commanded the Chinese armies in Burma, has arrived in New Delhi for a conference with General Six Archibald Wavell, Commander-in-Chief in India, before returning to China. “Burma can and must be re-taken,” he said. “It is vital to our re-entry to China. We took a hell of a beating in Burma and ran away—but a little extra strength, particularly in the air, might have tipped the scales. “However, the American Volunteer Group is now being transformed into a regular army pursuit group and bombers and fighters are being dispatched to China to build up the United States Air Force there.”

“The Chinese, properly led, are good fighters and the Japanese are not super-men,” said General Stillwell. “But the Japanese cannot be defeated by a ragtag and bobtail army. It will be nice to have some American troops. Re-taking Burma will be a serious proposition which cannot be undertaken without properly co-ordinated forces."

RESPONSIBILITY FOR PACIFIC (Rec. 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, May 25. “Australia and New Zealand stand today 100 per cent, with you in the war,” said the Australian Minister of External Affairs, Dr H. V. Evatt, speaking at the Labour Party annual conference. “Britain in 1940 saved the world and Australia and Ne?w Zealand stayed by you and were lavish with their own forces. Today the two British democracies of the Pacific are themselves in danger. From my observations I know the people of Britain realize that and desire to help us.” Dr Evatt declared that adequate aid for Australia and New Zealand would not prejudice plans for offensive action against the enemy in Europe. It was quite incorrect to suppose that the United States was exclusively responsible for the defence of Australia and New Zealand. Britain had also recognized her share of the responsibility for the defence of these essential bases.